Complaint against South Stormont deputy mayor withdrawn

LONG SAULT — The code of conduct complaint against South Stormont Deputy Mayor David Smith has been withdrawn.

The complaint, filed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) on behalf of one of its members who works for the township, prompted township council to hire a temporary integrity commissioner in November. It’s not clear how far the integrity commissioner, William Hunter, got into his investigation, but as recently as mid-November he was actively seeking to speak to witnesses of the interaction that sparked the complaint.

CUPE confirmed on Wednesday it had withdrawn the complaint, but did not explain why.

The nature of the complaint against Smith has not been released publicly, with the allegations and identities of the parties involved only ever being discussed at closed-doors council meetings. The Standard-Freeholder was only able to find out Smith was the subject of the complaint after agreeing to protect the identity of those who discussed the matter.

Those sources alleged Smith had an argument with a township employee in a local restaurant in October, where they also alleged Smith raised supposed legal troubles the employee had gone through and suggested the person only had her/his job with the township because of his intervention.

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Smith has told the Standard-Freeholder this is an unfair and not wholly accurate account of what happened, but has declined to share why until council has a chance to put the matter to rest entirely and he feels free to discuss it publicly.

Council discussed the integrity commissioner’s investigation during the closed session of its meeting on Dec. 12; soon afterwards it leaked out that the investigation had been brought to some kind of close.

With the complaint against Smith withdrawn, it’s unclear if council will still be receiving a report from the integrity commissioner. Some of the people the Standard-Freeholder spoke to for this article seemed to suggest a report may still be forthcoming, but didn’t know when that would be or what it might contain.

When asked if his investigation was still ongoing and, if not, whether there was still going to be a report to the council, Hunter declined to comment.